Northern California Women Leading Real Estate Celebration & Cocktail

Eileen Kong currently serves as Senior Vice President, Asset Management for Kilroy Realty Corporation, overseeing the asset management and leasing of over 6M square feet of Class A stabilized office assets in the San Francisco Bay Area markets. Ms. Kong joined Kilroy in 2011 and has held various positions in Asset Management. Prior to joining Kilroy, Ms. Kong held various asset management roles in which she was responsible for leasing, reposition, and operations with several commercial real estate companies including CAC Real Estate Management (merged with CBRE), Broadreach Capital Partners, Legacy Partners (now Steelwave), and Spieker Properties (merged with Equity Office, now EQ Office). Ms. Kong currently is an active member of various industry groups including ULI, Cornet, BOMA, and NAIOP. She is also a designated CCIM®, RPA®, and a licensed Real Estate Salesperson. Ms. Kong is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance.

Shola is an experienced nonprofit executive with expertise in affordable housing, real estate, and public administration. She currently serves as Chief Operating Officer at Eden Housing, managing the daily operations of a nearly 600-person, $50 million statewide nonprofit. Previously, Shola was the Director of Housing and Community Development for the City of Oakland, leading a team of 70+ people and overseeing over $100 million in housing capital. Under her leadership, Oakland's City Council approved a Strategic Action Plan to expand affordable housing and supported a $350 million housing bond in November 2022. Before moving to California in 2020, Shola held executive roles in New York City at Suffolk Construction, Enterprise Community Partners, HSBC Bank, and HR&A Advisors. In 2014, she was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as CEO of the New York City Housing Authority, managing an $11 billion, 10-year development plan, a $3 billion annual budget, and 11,000 employees. Shola is currently Vice Chair of the Northern California Housing Association (NPH), a fellow at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, a member of Chief, and a lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She holds a B.A. in History and African American Studies from Wesleyan University and a master's in Public Administration from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Stephanie is an Executive Vice President at The Swig Company, where she leads acquisitions, capital markets and capital raising. The Swig Company is a vertically-integrated family office that focuses primarily on office buildings and some multifamily properties. The Swig Family has an 85-year history and currently owns a little under 8MM SF of mostly office properties in New York, Bay Area, Southern California and Seattle. Prior to joining Swig in 2021, Stephanie was previously an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley's real estate investing group, where she spent more than a decade working in acquisitions. At Morgan Stanley, Stephanie acquired and managed core and opportunistic real estate investments worth approximately $2.5 billion across all asset classes. At Morgan Stanley, Stephanie was also an active member of the group’s U.S. sustainability committee and led Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts. Stephanie grew up in Hong Kong and Canada, graduated magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a member of ULI and NAIOP. Stephanie is a Co-Chair of the ULI SF Programs Committee, and sits on the ULI SF Executive Committee, the ULI SF Commercial Local Product Council and a ULI National Product Council.

Cynthia NeSmith-Montanez, a Senior Director in MGAC’s San Francisco office, has over 37 years of experience working on a wide variety of projects, from small tenant improvements to multi-building projects. She has worked on teams big and small for medical office buildings, hospitals, biotech facilities, corporate campuses, hotel renovations, and financial institutions. Cynthia brings deep knowledge of the industry, combining practical knowledge and theoretical understanding developed from her time in both owner’s representation and as a general contractor.

Ashley Breakfield represents large-scale urban developers, real estate investors, renewable energy companies, and private property owners in sophisticated land use and real estate matters. In the land use realm, Ashley specializes in advising clients on Bay Area mid-scale project development strategies, beginning at the project’s inception with evaluating a site for possible uses and strategizing on development plans. She then works to shepherd the project through the administrative process, including evaluating, negotiating and obtaining permits and other entitlements and administrative approvals, and counseling clients on environmental review under both CEQA and NEPA. In the commercial real estate aspect of her practice, Ashley’s transactional background is equally extensive. Her experience includes counseling developers and real estate investors with acquisitions, dispositions, and leasing of office, industrial, retail, mixed use, and agricultural real estate. In addition, Ashley’s real estate practice includes significant experience counseling clients on the negotiation and documentation of various financial arrangements, including acquisition, construction, mezzanine, and permanent financing. Prior to joining Farella’s Real Estate Industry Group, Ashley was a member of our Environmental Law practice group. In that role, she counseled clients on regulatory and compliance matters involving state and federal environmental, land use, and natural resources laws and statutes, and represented clients in state and federal court, as well as before various administrative agencies and boards. This experience is frequently an integral part of her real estate work. Ashley’s approach to her practice is forthright, practical, and results-oriented. Personable and straightforward, she is skilled at negotiating and communicating, emphasizing that both parties would like to get a deal done, and striving, whenever possible, to collaborate in the interest of getting to “yes” a little faster. Combined with her deep, firsthand knowledge of the ins and outs of the Bay Area real estate market, she’s an effective and persuasive advocate for her client’s interests. Ashley served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Edward M. Chen of the United States District Court, Northern District of California, and as a legal intern for the California Attorney General’s Office – Natural Resources Section and the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. Ashley is the President of Commercial Real Estate Women of San Francisco (CREW SF) (2024) and served on CREW Network’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force (2020-2021). She is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR). Ashley previously served as a co-chair of the Minority Bar Coalition of the San Francisco Bay Area (2019-2022) and as a member of the board of directors for the Bar Association of San Francisco (2021-2022). She is recognized among Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch in the area of Land Use and Zoning Law (2023-2024), Lawdragon Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law (2023-2024), and Super Lawyers’ Northern California Rising Stars (2015-2021). Ashley earned her J.D., cum laude, from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 2011, where she served as editor in chief of Hastings West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy. She received her B.A., with highest honors, from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2008.

Tina Chang is a Partner at Associate Capital, where she leads design and master development efforts at the Power Station. In this capacity, she selects and partners with the globe’s most talented and innovative designer professionals to deliver world-class, sustainable and intentionally-crafted buildings. Prior to Associate Capital, Tina spent nearly a decade in the public sector. She managed large-scale entitlement projects as a Senior Planner with the San Francisco Planning Department, and she master-planned US Naval installations in the Middle East and Washington, D.C. region during her time with the US Navy. She earned a Master of City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and B.A. in International Development Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Tina serves as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Board of Appeals and as Board Chair of the Homeless Prenatal Program, a nationally-recognized family resource center that empowers women and families by facilitating housing security, healthy babies and economic sustainability. She lives in San Francisco with her family.

With more than 20 years of experience in financial reporting and auditing, Youmna has a successful track record managing complex attest engagements with a focus on investment funds and real estate. She has led audits, reviews, compilations and agreed-upon procedures and has a deep understanding in various basis of reporting, various fund structures, investment strategies, allocations and waterfalls. Youmna has supported real estate private equity funds, private debt funds, venture capital funds and the commercial real estate industry. Additionally, she spent the last five years as a lecturer at San Francisco State University teaching financial accounting and managerial accounting courses. Youmna is a certified public accountant, licensed in California. Fluent in Arabic, she received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in accountancy from California State University, Sacramento and earned an Executive MBA (EMBA) from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

Dawn’s focus as a Senior Designer and Associate Principal is on guiding ground-up projects from planning and design through entitlements, and doing so with a focus on bringing diverse stakeholders to consensus on common goals. She enjoys engaging with communities and collaborating with clients and teammates. She is passionate about conceptual design and strategic about the visioning process, an approach that has brought to life many significant projects across the Bay Area over the past 18 years. As well as her degree in architecture, Dawn has completed a graduate program at Stanford University in business entrepreneurship, and brings that perspective to her client-centric working process.

Stephanie Wood co-founded CoBUILD Construction Services in 2014 with the goal of shifting the general contractor paradigm from combative to collaborative. She uses her Master's in Organizational Leadership to build and nurture a relational culture on the jobsite, in the office, and with clients. Her continuous pursuit of the most effective, neuroscience-backed approaches to employee development allows the entire CoBUILD team to work in tandem to fulfill its mission: to create environments for people to succeed.

Jennifer advises clients on land use and environmental matters arising from the development of commercial, residential, medical, and mixed-use projects in California, with a special emphasis on natural resources issues. She guides private, nonprofit, and public sector entities on all phases of project development from the earliest stages of design through completion, including acquisition, due diligence, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance, entitlement and permitting, and construction. Jennifer is particularly adept at advising on complex natural resources matters, including those concerning endangered species and wetlands under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), the California Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the federal Endangered Species Act and its California counterpart (ESA and CESA), and Section 1603 of the California Fish and Game Code (streambed alteration agreements). As part of this work, she regularly manages permitting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, state and local water quality control boards, and the California Coastal Commission, among other federal and state agencies and local governments. Jennifer frequently advises clients (from both the project applicant and landowner side) on conservation easements and other similar mitigation approaches to achieve permit obligations. She also has extensive experience with state housing legislation and local referenda, helping clients anticipate regulatory changes on the horizon. Jennifer has successfully ushered a diverse collection of high-profile projects through the state’s rigorous permitting approval process, including corporate campuses, mixed-use projects, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and large residential developments. Jennifer’s strong technical foundation, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in environmental science and previous environmental policy experience, aid in her ability to distil nuanced issues into pragmatic solutions. Prior to beginning her legal career, Jennifer established and implemented biodiversity conservation practices for governments and public institutions worldwide as the director of the Conservation International’s Regional Marine Strategies program in Washington, D.C. Before joining Allen Matkins, Jennifer was a partner and head of the land use practice at Stice & Block LLP in Oakland, California.

Gloria Aguilar joined Gidel & Kocal Construction in 2022 as the Marketing Coordinator, quickly assuming leadership of the marketing department and working closely with the President to elevate the firm’s brand presence in the commercial real estate space. With a degree in Business Marketing from the University of the Pacific - Stockton, Gloria expertly oversees social media strategy, graphic design and content, web development, and both internal and client-facing events. Her active involvement with the Commercial Real Estate Women of Silicon Valley (CREW SV) highlights her dedication to professional growth and industry engagement. Additionally, Gloria is the co-founder of Elevate: AEC Insights, which aspires to provide insight from industry experts in the world of AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) through the lens of small businesses to those looking to enter the AEC industry or grow in their career.

Based in San Francisco, Leslie is a director of HOK’s global Science + Technology practice. Leslie has dedicated the past two decades of her career to research and laboratory facilities. She has led the lab planning, programming and design for more than 150 projects, including several R&D Magazine/SEFA “Lab of the Year” award winners. Leslie has spoken at dozens of worldwide conferences and authored numerous articles and reports. She is on the Board of Directors of the Scientific Equipment and Furniture Association (SEFA), and a member of the International Institute for Sustainable Labs (I2SL), Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Julie Baccelli is a Bay Area native and construction industry veteran. Consulting to the industry for over a decade on new business development strategies and client management. At Build Group, San Francisco headquarters she is responsible for the tenant improvement projects for Bay Area hospitality, retail, and restaurants. Build Group has offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Seattle.

Lisa is Senior Vice President responsible for business operations and strategic planning for the West Coast region. Lisa has over 27 years of experience in construction, 25 of those with Turner Construction. She spent the first 14 years in Boston, working in several operational positions. In 2012, Lisa relocated to Turner’s Headquarter in New York City to serve as Vice President of Risk Management, responsible for safety, insurance, claims and legal, as well as part of the surety management team. In 2014, she relocated again to the San Francisco Bay Area as the VP & General Manager. Since that time she has been promoted to Senior Vice President supporting all teams throughout the West Coast Region. Lisa is active in industry groups and philanthropy. She chaired the inaugural San Francisco Hard Hats for Hearts Mission in 2016 for the American Heart Association and remains on the Executive Leadership Team. She is a board member for ACE Mentoring Bay Area; and a member of the AGC of California's California Education Foundation. She also serves on the Tulane Fund Advisory Board, serving her 9th year for her alma mater, Tulane University. Lisa graduated from Tulane University in Civil Engineering, and holds an MBA from Simmons College in Boston.

Sandy, Vice President and a key part of the West region’s senior management, has been a longstanding member of the Marx|Okubo team for over two decades. She focuses on developing client relationships and business for the West region and is a client manager for national institutional clients. She is also engaged as a firm leader in design and constructability reviews, property condition assessments, owner’s representation, detailed cost analyses, and accessibility reviews. In her roles, she provides solutions to clients’ needs, maintains and strengthens existing client connections, and develops new relationships. Sandy has been working in the fields of architecture and construction for nearly three decades, including design/build work. Her experience has included design development, construction document preparation, and construction administration for the renovation of residential properties, as well as owner’s representation of residential, retail, and office properties. She has performed many forensic investigations focused on exterior envelope issues. Sandy earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California - Berkeley. She is a licensed architect in California and a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as well as a Certified Access Specialist (CASp) in California.

Jessica Carter is Vice President of Originations at Archway Capital, LLC. With nearly a decade of experience in Residential and Commercial Real Estate Lending, Jessica focuses on Business Development and Origination of short-term bridge debt and equity for sponsors nationwide. Jessica specializes in underwriting and originating commercial real estate loans in various asset classes, including Multifamily, SFR, Industrial, and Retail. Jessica prides herself on developing strong broker partnerships by focusing on her value-add approach and client-centric focus. By effectively navigating the volatility of the real estate market, by specializing in bespoke lending scenarios and developing creative loan solutions, she has successfully closed over $200M in financing throughout her career. Prior to joining Archway, Jessica served as Regional Account Manager at a leading alternative investment management firm that focuses on commercial real estate loans in the lower middle market. Prior to that, she served as Residential Mortgage Loan Processor at Banc of California, one of the nation’s premier relationship-based business banks, providing banking and treasury management services to small-, middle-market, and venture-backed businesses. Jessica was born and raised in San Jose, CA, where she attended San Jose State University. She currently serves as President of the Bay Area Mortgage Association and has served on the board for 5 years. In 2022, she was named as one of ConnectCRE’s Top Mortgage Brokers & Lenders. During her free time, Jessica enjoys cooking international cuisine and spending time with her husband and daughter.

Kerry Dantzig, serving as Senior Vice President and Non-profit Practice Leader at Heffernan Insurance Brokers, specializes in Non-profits, Affordable Housing, Real Estate and K-12 Schools, Colleges & Universities. Kerry’s expertise lies in navigating the complex landscape of affordable housing programs, including Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), Section 8 vouchers, and government-subsidized initiatives. Her in-depth knowledge allows her to craft innovative strategies that bridge the gap between developers, government agencies, and low-income communities. Her collaborative approach, attention to detail, and strategic vision have established her as a trusted partner for developers, investors, and nonprofit organizations. With a dual BA in Psychology and Communication, Kerry brings a unique perspective and extensive knowledge to her work. Actively engaging in insurance company advisory panels, she enhances coverage, risk management, and pricing for the benefit of clients.

Brooke is currently a General Manager at Prism in San Francisco, proudly the first Bozzuto-managed building in the city. As the company expanded Westward, she was happy to be an early employee accepting an offer to move across the country. Originally from Maryland, she spent her first 5 years with Bozzuto in Washington, DC most recently multi-site managing properties in two unique neighborhoods of the city. Her properties won back-to-back Property of the Year awards at the annual Bozzuto Management Awards. She has experience in mixed-use properties, expanding and quickly adapting to new markets. Brooke has prior experience in event planning, advertising sales, and social media marketing but has found an equal love for budgeting and Excel spreadsheets at Bozzuto. Brooke graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Maryland, minoring in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Rebecca Gove is the CFO at Rossi Builders where she has overseen the company’s financial operations since 2013. In her role as CFO, Rebecca is responsible for the financial health and strategic planning of the firm, managing budgets, cash flow, financial forecasting, and ensuring profitability across multiple large-scale construction projects. She plays a pivotal role in driving operational efficiency, risk management, and long-term financial sustainability, while also overseeing human resources, IT infrastructure, and compliance with industry regulations. Rebecca joined Rossi Builders in 2002 as Office Manager, quickly advancing to Controller before stepping into her current executive role. With more than two decades of experience in the construction industry, she has been integral in securing financial stability, optimizing cost management, and supporting the company's growth initiatives. Prior to her tenure at Rossi Builders, Rebecca gained financial and management expertise in banking, manufacturing, and consumer goods. In addition to her financial leadership, Rebecca has served as a youth pastor and holds a degree in ministry from Global University.

Sarah joined the Harvest Properties team in 2004. In her current role, she oversees the Asset Management, Property Operations, Finance and the Corporate Operations teams. Previously, Sarah assisted in the acquisition, integration and asset management of Harvest’s commercial properties portfolio. Before joining Harvest, Sarah was a Property Manager for The John Buck Company in Chicago where she oversaw the opening of the UBS Tower, a 1.3 million square foot Class A high-rise and assisted in the management of numerous other CBD assets. Sarah has over 20 years of commercial real estate experience including leasing, construction management, asset management and financial analysis. Sarah holds a Bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College.

Pamela Izzo is Managing Director of SKS Partners and has over 38 years of experience in finance, leasing, acquisitions, asset management, and disposition of commercial property. Pamela joined SKS in 1998 as Director of Asset Management and later became Chief Operating Officer, and has been involved in some capacity with every SKS-owned property throughout the company’s history. Pam heads the Senior Leadership Team for implementing the company’s vision, mission and strategic goals. Before joining SKS, Pamela worked as an Investment Manager at Aetna Life Insurance Company and was Vice President at First Interstate Bank. She has a broad experience with product types including office, hotel, retail, R&D/industrial, and multi-family buildings. Pamela studied at University of Southern California, where she received her BA in Public Relations and she holds a MSBA in Finance from California State University. Pamela is proud of SKS’s gender equality, which she spearheaded during her years at the firm. Outside of work, she has served on a number of educational charitable boards, including in roles of Treasurer and President.

C.J. joined the East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative in 2019 as its first Executive Director and is the founding CEO of the Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation, which was formed in 2020 by the Collaborative. She has more than thirty years of experience in entrepreneurship and business management, non-profit operations, finance and commercial real estate including development, financing, and brokerage. She is a native of Oakland, California and a proud graduate of Castlemont High School. She brings to the Black Cultural Zone her homegrown knowledge of East Oakland, where she was born and raised, and her entrepreneurial, management, and transactional experience garnered within the Bay Area. C.J. is an entrepreneur and has worked directly with entrepreneurs and small business owners at several leading technical assistance providers in the area, including the Alameda County Small Business Development Center, Women's Initiative for Self Employment, and CEO Women. As a manager, she created the Consulting and Grants Programs at Community Visions (formerly Northern California Community Loan Fund), as its first Director, including the Facility Fitness Nonprofit Commercial Real Estate Training Curriculum and Pre-Development Support Programs like orgspaces.org (a predecessor to Spacesforgood.org). At Community Visions, C.J. was also involved in underwriting, funding and providing consulting expertise for Cultural Hubs and Nonprofit Commercial Development projects in San Francisco, Oakland and throughout Northern California, including the Museum of the African Diaspora, Youth Radio, Eastside Arts Alliance, and Destiny Arts Center, with a combined development project value in excess of $300 million. As a Broker, she has completed over $250 million in Investment Sales transactions and has leased hundreds of spaces throughout the bay area, particularly Oakland. Most recently, she was the Broker and Director of Commercial Real Estate at the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, a leading Bay Area affordable housing developer. In this role, she managed commercial investment sales, marketing and leasing, development, facility management, financial management and property operations. Currently, in addition to her role with the Black Cultural Zone, she is a tenured Professor at the College of Alameda in the Business Department and has launched the Peralta Community College District's first fully online Entrepreneurship Certificate Program. C.J. has a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology with a specialization in Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles; a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Administration from the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley; a Master of Business Administration (with Honors - Beta Gamma Sigma) in Marketing, Corporate Finance and Real Estate Finance from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; and her Doctorate (EdD) in Educational Leadership from Saint Mary’s College of California.

Karen Liu Staubach is the head of Design Strategy for Google's Workplace CoE team. Over 11 years at Google, she has focused on workplace design and strategic planning. She has led the design of over 2.8M SF of Bay Area projects, including YouTube's San Bruno campus. As a champion of data-driven design, she led the creation of a common building language and metrics system, transforming Google's approach to workplace strategy. Prior to Google, Karen spearheaded the design strategy for Hilton's focus service brands and its expansion in China, as well as collaborating on major projects at Silverstein Properties in New York City.

Susan is a design leader with 35+ years in the commercial design industry, she is Principal at DLR Group and has worked for other World class Architectural design firms such as SOM, Gensler and HOK. For Susan, her most valued partnerships are with clients who value knowledge sharing, and who look to design to transform their organizations. Across her career, Susan has drawn inspiration from humanist Architects and designers from Eileen Gray to Suzanne Tick, (Interior Design Hall of Fame Textile designer). By learning from masters of timeless design Susan now applies her own set of design maxims, which hinge on dimensionality, comfort, color theory, wellness and balance. Drawing from both industrial design and her father’s career as a Hanna Barbera cartoonist, Susan often explores different mediums for communicating ideas, from hand sketching to rapid 3D prototyping. This pendulum of growth through learning has now swung in a new direction: her mentorship of the next generation of design talent is focused on confidence building for underrepresented groups. Susan believes that in this digital age, design should be used to plug people into networks of other people – to build human connection. From a building’s approach to its most personal detail, the environment is absorbed both emotionally and physically. Susan thrives on finding harmony between these connections of scale, place, and people. “Function and beauty are not mutually exclusive, and when brought together they are transformational.”

Mollie is a Partner of Dostart Development Company (“DDC”), one of the Silicon Valley’s premier commercial real estate developers known for its local expertise, for its leadership in sustainability and transit-oriented design, and for the high quality of its projects and tenants. During the past decade with DDC, Mollie has actively managed nearly 1 million square feet of commercial office development and investment in Silicon Valley. Her responsibilities include leading acquisitions, managing city entitlements, directing leasing, construction, financing and asset management. Prior to joining DDC, Mollie was an investor with Francisco Partners, L.P., a technology-focused private equity firm with $5.0 billion under management, where she was involved in identifying, executing and managing investments across a variety of sectors. Earlier in her career, Mollie worked in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. Mollie is currently a member of the Urban Land Institute and serves on the national ULI Industrial and Office Product Council as well as on the San Francisco Commercial Local Product Council. She is also a member of NAIOP – Silicon Valley and Stanford Professionals in Real Estate (SPIRE). Mollie also serves as treasurer on the Board of Directors of The Representation Project. Mollie received her M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and her B.A. in Economics and Latin American Studies, with Distinction, from Yale University.

Cherie Y. Song is a Partner in Lubin Olson's Real Estate and Business Practice Groups. She specializes in commercial leasing, acquisitions and dispositions, and telecommunications. Ms. Song represents institutional landlords, multi-billion dollar investment management companies, REITs, pension funds, and national retailers in a broad range of lease-related matters for office, retail, industrial, mixed-use properties and telecommunications assets. She also represents developers and investors in the acquisition, development, disposition and financing of commercial properties. Her practice also includes advising startups and private companies on various real estate and business-related matters. Prior to joining Lubin Olson, Ms. Song practiced in the San Francisco office of Buchalter Nemer and the Los Angeles office of McGuireWoods. Ms. Song was honored by Thompson Reuters as a Super Lawyer “Rising Star” in 2009 and 2010.

A California Licensed Architect with twenty-seven years of experience in architectural design, construction, project management in the UC system. Jill was a Senior Project Manager for the UC Davis Campus Design and Construction Management department for 20+ years before moving to UC Davis Health in 2019. She has experience with multiple contract delivery methods, and a wide range of project types including high tech, academic, housing and healthcare. Her current role includes delivering multiple strategic expansion projects for the UC Davis Health System including the California Tower, a 1M square foot replacement bed tower project delivered under a Progressive Design Build contract, an outpatient surgery Center and Clinic, an expansion to the Central Utility Plant, renovation and new construction of hospital Operating Rooms, and off-site Medical Office Buildings serving outpatient needs in the surrounding community. She is leading an integrated team of designers and builders using collaborative contract delivery that will add more than 1M gross square feet to the health campus over the next decade.

As the Development Partner at Menlo Equities, Jane Vaughan is responsible for all aspects of development of the company’s major projects. Ms. Vaughan’s 4 million square foot development portfolio at Menlo Equities ranges from traditional office/R&D projects in Silicon Valley and Southern California to mixed-use office and residential. In 2017, Ms. Vaughan completed the development of a 1.65M square foot office/R&D project in Santa Clara, the headquarters of both Palo Alto Networks and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Prior to joining Menlo Equities, Ms. Vaughan was a Vice President and Development Partner at the Koll Company and a Vice President with Wells Fargo Bank’s commercial real estate group in Silicon Valley. Ms. Vaughan holds an MBA with honors from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Finance and Accounting. Ms. Vaughan is a structural engineer and earned a MA with honors from the University of Maryland and an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from The Ohio State University. Ms. Vaughan is a former board member and Chair of Goodwill in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin. As Chair from 2012 to 2015, Ms. Vaughan spearheaded the sale of Goodwill’s under-utilized San Francisco property. Ms. Vaughan also coordinated the acquisition and remodel of non-profit Sunnyvale Community Services’ headquarters in Sunnyvale.

Valerie Yip has over 15 years in real estate, spanning from acquisition, asset management, development, and investment banking throughout US, Asia, and Europe. Previously, Ms. Yip worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley Real Estate in both New York and Hong Kong managing real estate advisory transactions (including IPO and corporate restructuring) and principal investment. Ms. Yip received a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Accounting at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with Latin honors and Master of Business Administration from INSEAD.